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California Senate To Feds: Back Off!
The Tenth Amendment Center ^ | 9-4-09 | Michael Boldin

Posted on 09/05/2009 4:04:45 PM PDT by ChrisInAR

My home state of California usually interacts with the federal government by genuflecting. But, on a few issues - very few, that is - they’ve got plenty of backbone.

Most notably, marijuana.

Last week, the California State Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 14 (SJR14), calling on the federal government to end their “interference in state medical marijuana laws.” If passed by the Assembly, it will be sent on to Congress and the White House as an official position of the California legislature.

THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE CLAUSE

Under the Constitution of the United States, the federal government is authorized to exercise only those powers which have been delegated to it by the People. This is affirmed by the ratification of the 10th Amendment, which states, ”The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The federal government has often taken the position that it can still wage its “war on marijuana” under the “Interstate Commerce Clause” in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. But, some experts see this kind of explanation as quite a stretch.

Most importantly, the Interstate Commerce Clause, as understood by the founders, was meant to empower the federal government to regulate trade among the states. One of the chief concerns this addressed was preventing States from imposing restrictive taxes on goods coming from other states.

The Founders, however, made it quite clear that this would not authorize the government to take over fields like agriculture. Clearly, this hasn’t stopped today’s politicians and judges from turning that original meaning nearly upside down.

FIREARMS TOO

While the stand off on state marijuana laws has been going on for over a decade, firearms is a new front in the Commerce....

(Excerpt) Read more at tenthamendmentcenter.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: calegislature; california; commerceclause; dontbogartthatjoint; libertarians; marijuana; medicalmarijuana; teaparty; tenthamendment; wickard; wod
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1 posted on 09/05/2009 4:04:46 PM PDT by ChrisInAR
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To: ChrisInAR
But, on a few issues - very few, that is - they’ve got plenty of backbone.

Too few, that's why the state is broke.

2 posted on 09/05/2009 4:06:32 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: ChrisInAR
California Senate To Feds: "Back off on our marijuana! Do you hear us? STAY OUT!'

Obama to California: "Umm... OK?"

Boy, that's showing 'em, Sacramento. You sure told him.

3 posted on 09/05/2009 4:12:48 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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To: EGPWS

“But, on a few issues - very few, that is - they’ve got plenty of backbone.”

Sacremento is a snake pit. Invertebrates abound.


4 posted on 09/05/2009 4:16:17 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin
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To: ChrisInAR

California still has a lot of clout though, particularly with the Democrats. Anything that can weaken the current interpretation of the commerce clause is all good as far as I’m concerned. How ironic it is that the subject of such an important battle is a mere recreational drug, while across the country Federal interference has caused and is causing whole industries to go to seed.


5 posted on 09/05/2009 4:16:49 PM PDT by SeeSharp
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To: ChrisInAR

Those clowns worry about PotHeads but wouldn’t do anything to get water to the fields and orchards of the Central Valley that the Feds shut off!


6 posted on 09/05/2009 4:16:49 PM PDT by TaMoDee
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To: ChrisInAR

the tenth amendment is for all states...but the lefty ones must sacrifice their big federal government BS paradigm to use it....Sweet.


7 posted on 09/05/2009 4:19:42 PM PDT by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: ChrisInAR
How appropriate.

A joint resolution.

8 posted on 09/05/2009 4:20:47 PM PDT by ZOOKER ( Exploring the fine line between cynicism and outright depression)
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To: ZOOKER

We Califonians are resolute about our joints.


9 posted on 09/05/2009 4:22:33 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin
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To: ChrisInAR

Memo to California Potheads:

Commence mass orgasm.

That is all.


10 posted on 09/05/2009 4:25:56 PM PDT by mkjessup (Hey Comrade 0bama? No documentation = No eligibility, ok? Now GTF out of OUR White House!!!)
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To: ChrisInAR
Senate Joint Resolution

That's kinda funny.

Wonder what the average Californian is going to think when some hikers eventually get lit up by some Mexicans guarding their marijuana farm in the middle of the forest?

11 posted on 09/05/2009 4:26:32 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: TaMoDee

You’re correct! There isn’t a Dem hack in the state, who has the cojones to tell the Feds to pound salt; or those water valves would have been turned long-ago!


12 posted on 09/05/2009 4:26:52 PM PDT by old school
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To: ChrisInAR

Let us smoke our dope duuuuuude!


13 posted on 09/05/2009 4:54:49 PM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it! FairTaxNation.com)
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To: ChrisInAR
Isn't marijuana the major cash crop in about six states. We need to have some sanity sometime in some areas.
14 posted on 09/05/2009 5:08:30 PM PDT by Citizen Tom Paine
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To: ChrisInAR

a “ Joint Resolution “

fer sure


15 posted on 09/05/2009 6:10:23 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help" Lincoln)
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To: ChrisInAR

These “dispensaries” are in violations of federal law I do not know where to start.The big one is these dispensaries are in violation of the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. Many of these dispansaries are open near grade schools and high schools. That can be in violation of the “thousand foot rule”.


16 posted on 09/05/2009 6:31:05 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("We will either find a way, or make one."Hannibal/Carthaginian Military Commander)
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It is a felony to sell drugs within 1000 feet of a school


17 posted on 09/05/2009 6:32:03 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("We will either find a way, or make one."Hannibal/Carthaginian Military Commander)
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To: ChrisInAR
Recall that when the 10th was ratified, the regulation of pot was left up to the states, and I don't know of a single one where it was immediately made illegal. If returning the regulation of pot to the states is the price we must pay to restore the 10th, then it is a small price indeed.

I am doubly for this resolution because of how conflicted it will make the leftists who are now in power in DC. They demand that Republicans stay out of their bedrooms. I demand they stay out of my pot stash. The reason is simple: I don't have a pot stash and never will. But I look forward to the regulation of every other thing the Feds have usurped over the years being returned to the “states and to the people”.

18 posted on 09/05/2009 6:35:25 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Man50D
Let us smoke our dope duuuuuude!

Thank you...I'll toke to that! :-)

19 posted on 09/05/2009 8:47:45 PM PDT by ChrisInAR (The Tenth Amendment is still the Supreme Law of the Land, folks -- start enforcing it for a CHANGE!)
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To: sonofstrangelove
These “dispensaries” are in violations of federal law...

& the fact that the federal law is in violation of the Constitution (which is an even higher law, no pun intended...well, maybe) doesn't bother you?

20 posted on 09/05/2009 8:54:39 PM PDT by ChrisInAR (The Tenth Amendment is still the Supreme Law of the Land, folks -- start enforcing it for a CHANGE!)
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